Jazz Articles about Kurt Edelhagen

About Kurt Edelhagen

Album Review

Kurt Edelhagen & His Orchestra: The Unreleased WDR Jazz Recordings 1957 - 1974

Read "The Unreleased WDR Jazz Recordings 1957 - 1974" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
April 6, 2021

This 3xCD collection of recordings by Kurt Edelhagen & His Orchestra is culled from over three thousand individual tracks recorded under the auspices of Cologne, Germany radio station WDR over close on twenty years. It is, as the expression goes, a curate's egg. That is to say, parts of it are excellent and parts of it are not. A big band whose sidepersons, as opposed to guest soloists and arrangers, are not named in the liner booklet, the ensemble was, ...

Extended Analysis

Orchester Kurt Edelhagen: Big Bands Live

by Jack Bowers
July 28, 2013

Maestro Kurt Edelhagen's Orchestra was a band for its time, deftly blending elements of swing, pop and jazz to help move Germany--at least the Western part of it--away from Nazi strictures and toward a more open-handed environment that not only tolerated but nourished the country's alliance to big-band music that spawned a wide array of world-class contemporary ensembles. As was true of many bands from overseas back in the day, not many of the Edelhagen Orchestra's recordings ...